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Welcome to my Polish blog! My Polish great grandpa was orphaned during the Chicago flu epidemic of 1918 & spent his life looking for all of his siblings. Some family stayed in Chicago & some returned to Poland. Some family was Catholic, & some are believed to be Jewish. I post the things I learn in efforts it may help someone else in their research. I also hope this blog helps me connect with others that know about the people I'm learning about. Digital images of records or links are put inside most postings so you can view records full screen. I encourage comments. Feel free to sign the guestbook, stating who you're looking for. Maybe we can all help each other out this way, because there are many challenges with Polish research. I hope you enjoy learning with me. And I hope to be taught more about my Polish heritage.I have added a few languages to this blog through Google translate. I hope that it may be accurate enough with the communication of ideas. Thanks! -Julie

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25 October 2009

I started taking addresses I found (regarding Sanetras), and started marking them on a Google map. I have posted that map I marked & created, near the bottom of this blog page. You can scroll the map, zoom in, and even view it full page through Google maps. So several of the recent postings with addresses discussed are marked on this map. The map is a work in progress & will get frequent updates.I have a few more addresses to plot. I try to list the address, person there, and what year they had this address. If I have all that info, it is posted with the tag.

I also added a guest book. Even if you aren't related, you are still welcome to sign the guest book & tell about your Polish/Slavic ancestors. Maybe it'll help all of us with questions about our roots, since we're all looking for similar info. I believe this way, more of us can see who we're each looking for.
Comments on message postings and questions you may have are also welcome.
Thanks! Julie

23 October 2009

Kazimierz has been very hard to find, because it's a challenge to guess how his name was spelled. Kazimierz was born in Krakow, Poland, 16 Feb 1897. He immigrated to the United States, leaving from Hamburg Germany on 21 Jan 1914, and arriving at Ellis Island 31 Jan 1914. He traveled with his mother Anna & her sister Alfreda Mazurkiewicz. His passage was paid for by his step father Ignatz Baranowski (or Baranovski) living at 518 Osborne, in Chicago. He left behind his brother Anton Bazarnik, living in Krakow. In 1915 & 1916 on the Chicago city directories, both Ignatz & Kazimierz were listed as living at 518 Osborne. In 1923 there was a Kazemia Bazerrnick, laundryman, living at 1054 Marshfield Ave. On the WWI draft registration in 1918, Kazimir's step-father Ignatz was living at 1058 Marshfield, and on the 1920 & 1930 Census, Kazimierz' aunt Julia Janik's family (Kwiatkowski) is living at that address.

I found Kazimierz' WWI & WWII draft registration cards, which I've attached. I also found Kazimierz on the SSDI (Social Security Death Index) which said he died Sep 1972 in Gary, Lake, Indiana. The WWII draft registration card says his wife is Matilda.

I am wondering if Alfreda Mazurkiewicz & her family may have been Jewish. (Including Kazimierz) There are multiple reasons why I think this. Adam Sanetra was Catholic. I have been looking for records to prove or disprove the idea that they may be Jewish, but have not yet found them in Jewish records. But I also have no experience with Jewish genealogy. I do know that the surnames Mazurkiewicz, Bazarnik & Baranovski do show up in Jewish voter & concentration camp records. But I don't know about my relatives. I am not prejudice at all, and love people of all race and all religion. So if you know something of these families, please let me know. Through comments or email.

On Kazimierz WWI record, it states he is using the alias Kazimir Paulik to keep his job. I have asked several people why he'd have to change his name in 1918, and the answer I got was "If he was Jewish and his boss was prejudice." So that is a theory. This is all I know of Kazimierz but wish to know more. Here are links to Kazimierz on Ellis Island Manifest, and his footnote page that was created by Footnote.com:

17 October 2009

Finally found some things to show which Karl Janik was our relative. The address 1058 Marshfield helped. On Ellis Island, in 1923, Adam Sanetra said he was going to live with his brother-in-law Karl Janik, at 1058 Marshfield Ave. The Karl at this address was married to Julia. I believe this Julia is a Mazurkiewicz for Karl to be a brother-in-law. Also, Anna & her husband lived at this 1058 Marshfield address in 1918, and Anna is a Mazurkiewicz.

So Julia was first married to Wladyslaw Kwiatkowski. He died in March 1910. Julia then married Karol (Karl) Janik. Attached is the 1920 Census, Karl & Julia's marriage cert & Karl's death certificate. You can click on each image to view it full screen. Note: Karol was born in Zywiec, where Adam Sanetra was from.

12 October 2009

http://www.history.com/content/ellis-island/ellis-island-videoHere's a great website, to really give you a feel for Ellis Island. This is History.com's website. There's a video clip called arrival at Ellis Island, where you feel like you're on the boat, seeing things as the new immigrants would. There's video clips of the inside of Ellis Island, old pictures, old video footage, and stories from immigrants in the 6 different video clips. I've never been able to visit NY or Ellis Island. So if you haven't either, I recommend checking out these video clips. It is amazing what some of our ancestors went through to be US Citizens & to try to start a new and better life!

01 October 2009

Correction 17 Oct 2009: Anna did not marry Karl Janik. They had the same address, & I believe that Anna & Julia were Mazukiewicz sisters. Trying to get Julia's death certificate to show her maiden name. See updates to info on Karl & Julia on posting dated 17 Oct 2009.

I find it very challenging to guess how census takers would spell our family names & then how someone would index that name. Adam Sanetra said on Ellis Island, in 1923, that he was going to live with his brother-in-law Karl Janick, at 1058 Marshfield Ave. Adam's wife, Alfreda Mazurkiewicz, had a sister Anna Mazurkiewics that married Ignatz Baranowski. His WWI draft registration card gave his address as 1058 Marshfield Ave. So this would appear Ignatz died, and then Anna married Karl Jannick. So we have Anna living at 1058 Marshfield Ave from at least 1918-1923, which includes the 1920 Census. I wished there was a way to look up the address and see who was there. And I didn't know how old Karl was or what spelling variation was used. I found a way to look people up by addresses that isn't too hard or tedious.

I found this immensely helpful website. (link below) It has Census maps for all the Chicago Census from 1870-1930. So take your address, then look at a Google street map for what streets are closest to your address. Keep the Google street map setting handy to compare with the map on this site. Then find nearby streets, and you can see your ward and enumeration district. I know on Ancestry.com you can go to the census, then go straight to the ward, then district, and search manually. Not sure about other sites. When you can get these numbers it's only abt 15-20 pages to search through. Here's an example:

I was looking for 1058 N. Marshfield Ave in the 1920 Census. So I went to this site (link below), then selected the 1920 Census map. Looking at the major roads, I saw that ward 15 looked like it covered my address. So I clicked on the number "15" which had a hyperlink to open ward 15's map. Then I clicked "zoom" icon, and could see the streets in ward 15, and see which district my address was at, which was district #894.

Then I went to Ancestry.com, selected the 1920 Census, selected ward #15, then selected district #894, and a few pages later I saw Marshfield Ave in the far left column, in the margins. Then I looked for house #1058, in the first Census column. There was Carol Janik & his wife Julia. Karl was spelled Carol, which I could see with Karol being a common spelling. But I was expecting to see Karl & Anna. Maybe she's Julianna? Julia is the same age as Anna. I'll have to investigate more. But this is definitely the right Karl Janick because he is at the specific address. I have not been able to find Karl Jannik of many spelling variations on the 1923 Chicago City Directory at Footnote.com. And I manually went through starting at "Jan___". So glad to see proof of Karl at this address. Attached is this Census page I'm referencing. I'm not sure who the other people are, but I'm happy to finally find this page. And now I have some more things to work on and think about.

Also on this site is info about the street changes of 1909 & 1911. Branislawa Sanetra immigrated the year of the second street change names. The address she gave for her father Adam was at least 30 blocks away from where Adam actually lived, and they never found each other. I wonder how many other people that happened to, because of changes and not able to get word to the family member immigrating in time?

Another really great resource on this site is the 1928-1929 Polk criss-cross directory. So you can look up an address, organized alphabetically by the street names, then look to your house number. I am really grateful to the people who worked on the resources for this site. I just discovered this site yesterday and already have found a few things I'd been looking for. These resources help make it easier if you have an address, and don't know how the Census taker spelled the names. Posting in case it can help others in their searches. http://www.alookatcook.com/

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Naturalization info help

See posting 18 Jul 2010 for links, explanations and JPEG image examples explaining how I have found naturalization records.

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Chicago Census Maps & Chicago street grid (address) changes

If you have an address, you can look up your family on the Census through Census maps. Which for immigrant names, is often an easier way to find families. See more on the posting 1 Oct 2009, or the tag "census maps".
Also, there were major changes to Chicago addresses in 1909 & 1911. See the posting for 1 Jan 2010.